Sydney Chatman and Jalyn Greene know what it’s like to teach theater to minority, inner-city students. So the African-American women are a natural pair to direct and act, respectively, the one-woman show “No Child…,” which is the last Mississippi Bend Players production this summer. It runs Thursday through Sunday at Augustana College’s Brunner Theatre Center, 3750 7th Ave., Rock Island. “No Child…” (written and premiered in 2006 by Nilaja Sun) follows the story of Miss Sun, a visiting teacher who uses theatre as a means of connecting with students in the New York City public school... Read More

Just a week after its first 2021 production, the Mississippi Bend Players, with Shelley Cooper, will be back this week with her original one-woman show, Mary and Ethel: How I Learned to Sing. The show, which debuted at the Circa ‘21 Speakeasy in September 2020, contains musical numbers from musical theater Golden Age icons Mary Martin (1913-1990) and Ethel Merman (1908-1984). With musical arrangements and piano accompaniment by Quad-City music director Mason Moss, Cooper sings multiple medleys from Golden Age classics like Anything Goes!, Hello, Dolly!, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Annie... Read More

The Frog and the Princess by Brandon Roberts will be presented in the Brunner Mainstage Theatre within the Brunner Theatre Center at Augustana College, 639 38th St., Rock Island at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15-16. To reserve your tickets, call the ticket office at 309-794-7306.  Read More

Take a trip down the Mighty Mississippi with the newest production from the Mississippi Bend Players! Big River is now playing at the Brunner Theatre Center at Augustana College (3757 7th Avenue Rock Island). The show has three performances left: Friday Jun 29 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday Jun 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday Jul 1 at 2 p.m. To purchase tickets for any of the remaining performances, visit https://www.mississippibendplayers.com/. Hurry, because seats are going fast! Big River’s characters, plot and themes are based on Mark Twain’s beloved novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It proves... Read More